Monkeys mourn fallen dummy monkey after mistaking it for the real thing

British filmmakers have captured a collective outpouring of grief by monkeys who mistook a dummy monkey for a dead infant.

The moving video was captured during the filming of BBC program Spy in the Wild and uploaded to YouTube today, where it has since been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

In it, a narrator explains how a camera-equipped dummy in the shape of an infant langur monkey was set up near a colony in Rajasthan, India to monitor the animal’s habit of sharing baby-sitting duties, the Daily Express reports.

The fake monkey’s appearance –- complete with artificially produced monkey noises – is so convincing one of the langurs attempts to remove it from the branch where it is sitting and nurse it.

The dummy at one point is accidentally dropped, and when it does not rise the other monkeys try to “rouse” it, without success.

Believing the still and now silent infant to be dead, the colony solemnly gathers around to mourn the dummy’s “passing”.

Several monkeys can be seen embracing one another or putting their arms over a companion’s shoulder in a remarkably human expression of grief.